Transportation of hydrocarbon fluid from an offshore field to a receiving station is a key factor in the selection of a suitable production system for the exploitation of the offshore field. Pipelines laid on the seabed are widely applied as a means for reliably transporting oil and gas at long distances. However, for marginal fields or for locations where the installation of pipelines is technically or economically not feasible, other hydrocarbon export systems can be desired. Furthermore, it can be required to provide a contingency hydrocarbon export system which is only used under exceptional circumstance or when the main export system is not available.
A known crude oil export system is described in OTC paper 5585 presented at the 19th Annual Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Tex., Apr. 27-30, 1987. This system includes a steel production platform to which several satellite wells are connected, and from which an export flowline extends to a permanently moored Floating Production, Storage and Offloading tanker (FPSO tanker) via a lazy wave flexible riser. During operation oil is pumped from the platform through the export flowline into the FPSO tanker. From the FPSO tanker the oil is transferred into a shuttle tanker which is temporarily positioned in the vicinity of the FPSO tanker during transfer. This system is vulnerable to downtime during severe weather conditions as production has to be interrupted when the flowline is to be disconnected from the FPSO tanker. Furthermore, positioning of the shuttle tanker close to the FPSO tanker can be limited to relatively calm weather conditions.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the problems of the prior art system and method of transporting offshore hydrocarbon fluid.